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came from Thomas Holles, Efq; Member of the Royal and Anti quarian Societies.

Our author giving an account of the Society of Arts, obferves, that these perfons are aftonished at thofefpeculations upon agriculture, which idle reafoners indulge in other countries: fpeculations which being useful only to particular people, who have brought them into vogue, anfwer no other purpofe but to fill periodical writings. If, fay they, thefe people really defire to ferve the caufe of agriculture, why do they not, in places where the courvée robs it of fo many hands, whofe time is infinitely precious, make united efforts to deliver it from that yoke, either by convincing the government of the incoveniencies attending it, or by applying fome remedy to the evil, by way of fubfcription, if it be thought neceffary?

In a converfation upon this fubject, an English gentleman, who was very fond of husbandry, told me, that happening to travel in the autumn of the year 1767, from Germany to Paris, through Burgundy and Champagne, he ftopt in the evening at a village upon the road to Langres, named Suzainne-court. As he did not chufe to fup, and faw that the principal inns in the village were filled with coaches and waggons, he alighted at a kind of hovel, where he found a bed for himself and a stable for

his horfe, and there fixed his quar ters for that night. Whilft he waited till bed-time, and was free from the noise unavoidable in great inns, which he had prudently Thunned, he amufed himself with converfing with the mistress of the houfe, a widow-woman, when fuddenly entered the fyndic of the village, at the head of twenty peafants, for whom he required gite f in the king's name.

Thefe pealants made part of a body of fixty or eighty, who were come from different quarters, to begin next day a grand courvée upon the road of Suzanne-court.

The English gentleman, whofe views were difconcerted by the ap pearance of this crowd, made a particular enquiry into the caufe of their meeting. They had been fummoned eight or ten leagues off, with their carts and their oxen; but it was found impoffible to bring their teams fo far, on account of a moft rugged road through mountains and craggy places, which neither their carriages nor their oxen were able to get over.

The peafants, drawn up in a row round the kitchen-table, feemed to be very penfive, and to revolve in theirminds the fine which they owed their king, and which they were obliged the next day to make good in the prefence of the infpector, or go to prifon. This fine being proportioned to the number of oxen that each was to bring with him, it was necessary to take an account, which fhould diftinguish the quota for each individual, and give the

A day's work due from the vassal to his lord, to be done in perfon, or by his cattle, plough, or team.

T.

+ Gite, is a power to lie at the house of a tenant, vassal, or subject, in paffing along by it. T.

ium

fum total to be paid to the infpector. Upon this occafion, they had recourfe to the affiftance of the Eng. lith gentleman, who quickly anfwered their queftion, and calculated the fum, which amounted to about fifty livres; this they drew, with a very forrowful countenance, out of their pockets, in all forts of money, enveloped in paper, and, together with the account, it was locked up by the landlady.

This affair being adjusted, whilft these poor wretches were bufied near the fire in warming fome but ter and wine, which were given them in charity, to foment their feet, all mangled and torn with walking over fints, the widow afked them whether they were for fupper? Some had bread, and made bargain to have it boiled up with water, falt, and a little butter, at two fols a head: others agreed for the bread and the feafoning: many having neither bread nor money, withdrew to the barn, there to repair their exhausted ftrength by repofe, that they might be able to go through the toil of the next day.

The English gentleman then afked the widow, whether he could get a little fauce to make a foup expeditiously by mixing it with butter and greens. She faid the had the gravy of fome beef à la mode, which had been the chief provifion of her house during four days. The gentleman agreed for it: a large pot having been filled up to the brim, and again put upon the fire, he caufed as much bread to be given to the company as they chofe; the cut it into flices, and put them into four great earthen dithes, which were no fooner replenished with broth, than it was (wallowed VOL. XV.

up with all the filence of a Carthufian refectory. He then caufed three mufty cheefes to be ferved up, with bread ftill at the difcretion of the company. The whole entertainment coft him five livres, eight fols, and procured him a thousand bleffings, with the most fervent prayers, which those good people put up to heaven for him, returning him thanks in a body.

The gentleman accompanied his relation of this affair with many obfervations upon the fine, upon its legality, upon the character of those who ordered it with one hand, and at the fame time received it with the other, upon the ufe it was put to, upon the increase of labour arifing from it, &c. He added, that happening fince to be at a fine country feat, which belonged to a man who had made a fortune by paving the high road, he had fcarce come to the knowledge of that circumftance, when he fled with all hafte, fearing left the houfe fhould tumble down, and crufh him together with the owner.

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I fhall fubmit to the confideration of the reader.

laftic doctors and the opinions of univerfities. The pope exhaufted all the artifices of his countrymen to avoid coming to a decifion, and endeavoured to fhew Henry VIII. that it was out of his power to determine the matter. He even went fo far as to fuggeft to him to have the affair examined into and decided in England, without his concurrence, expreffing his regret that the king had not followed the advice, which, at the very beginning of the affair, had been given him by the prelates of his kingdom, an advice which had been oppofed by Cardinal Wolfey upon pretext of difference for the Holy See, but in reality because he then found as much facility as fecurity in recurring to Rome.

After the councils of Bafil and Conftance, European fovereigns found the court of Rome as tractable as before it had been the reverfe. The affair of Henry VIIIth's divorce, prefents us with an extraordinary example of a refiftance and refolution the more aftonishing, as they were lefs to be expected from the character of Clement VII. Cardinal Wolfey conceived the first idea of this divorce, in circumftances when every thing "feemed to infure its fuccefs. He had just acceded upon his master's account to the alliance between France, the pope, and the Venetians: he looked upon the divorce as a fecure battery against the emperor; but he did not forefee the pillaging of Rome, the imprifoninent of the pope, his complete reconciliation with Charles V. and the fuperiority which thefe extra-termined the difgrace of Wolfey, ordinary accidents were likely to give this prince, whofe oppofition formed the only knot of a difficulty. which it was in vain to attempt to folve by Leviticus, by Deuteronomy, and by the fuffrage of fco

The English hiftorians, even Mr. Hume himself, have neglected to difcufs this point, which is of the greater importance as it de

and as it feems to difculpate the court of Rome of the inflexibility which it is accused of, and which it could not avoid fhewing, fince it was become entirely dependent on Charles V*.

[We

I meet with a proof of this fact, in a letter written to the legate Campeggio, in the pope's name, by Cardinal Salviati, and inferted in a Collection of Lettere di XIII. Huomini Illuftr. fol. 28. N. S. (Il papa) fà e dagli effett a conofciuto l'ottima mente del reverendiffimo ed il firiffime Monsignor Eboracenje, verfo le cofe della fede Apostolica; ed bà per certo che con madefimo animo fi movesse S. S. reverendiffima a fare che il feren fimo Ré domandaffe un legato per questa soft, con tullo che da Prelati del regno li foffe detto che poteva far jenza. Ma voleffe iddo che S. S. Reverendiffima avoje lajeiato corren la cofo, perche fè il ré Pariffe determinata jenza l'autorità della fanttà fuo, o male o bene che ave fatto, faria fiato fenza colpa jua e bujino fro! Our lord, the pope, knows, and from facts has difcovered the good intentions of the most reverend and illuftrious Cardinal of York, with regard to the affairs of the apoftolical ste; and it is his firm opinion, that the most reverend cardinal should with the fame good intention, endeavour to perfuade the most ferere king to apply for a le gate to tranfa&t that affair, though he has been told by the prelates of his

kingdom,

[We fhall conclude thefe extracts with the whimsical opinion of our author, as to the cause which enabled the people of this country to export fuch vast quantities of wheat.]

The English bread is very good, and very fine, though it has a great deal of crumb. It was the English, that first thought of ufing yeft or the flower of beer for leaven to make bread a cuftom, which, with great difficulty, began to obtain at Paris about the middle of the last century. The first edition of the Hiftory of the Police of Paris prefents us with extraordinary papers relative to the contests which it occafioned. The parliament of Paris, taking cognizance of this affair, confulted the most eminent citizens, together with the gentlemen of the faculty, and were almoft for confulting the Sorbonne; their contradictory opinions increasing the difficulty, instead of diminish ing it, the little loaves continued in poffeffion of the yeft or flower of beer. The cafe will, no doubt, be the fame with regard to inoculation, for which likewife all Europe is indebted to England. Thofe who are interested on either tide of

the queftion, cannot read the pieces relative to this affair, collected by the commiffioner la Mare, without the highest fatisfaction; efpecially the opinion of the famous bookfeller Vitré: that piece could not difcover more humour, if Moliere himself had drawn it up.

The butter and tea, which the Londoners live upon from morning till three or four o'clock in the afternoon, occafion the chief confumption of bread, which is cut in flices, and fo thin, that it does as much honour to the addrefs of the perfon who cuts it, as to the fharpnefs of the knife. Two or three of these flices furnish out a breakfaft. They are no lefs fparing in their other meals: what would be fcarce enough for a Frenchman of an ordinary appetite, would fuffice three hungry Englishmen. They feem to eat bread merely through fear of being thought to eat none at their meals: as this is the national tafte, their phyficians look upon bread as the heaviest of all aliments, and the hardest of digeftion. 'Tis this tafte, and the cuftom established in confequence of it, which enables the English to export a prodigious quantity of

kingdom, that he might do without one. But would to God, that the most reverend lord cardinal had let the affairs run on, because, if the king had determined it without the authority of his holiness, whether he had done well or ill, it would have paffed without any fault of his, and without his incurring any cenfure !"

The pope himself fpoke in this manner to the agent of Henry VIII. who gives that prince an account of what his holiness said, in a Latin dispatch of the 17th of September 1528, inferted in the Proofs of the Hiftory of the Divorce, by the Abbé le Grand, p. 16. Agant, faid the pope to him, agant per fe ipfos quod volunt, legatum remittant, co prætextu quòd in caufum ulterius procedi nolint et deinceps, ut ipfis videbitur, rem conficiant, modo ne, me auctore, injuftè quid

quam agatur. "Let them," faid the pope, do whatever they think proper of themselves, let them fend back the legate upon pretext that they do not chufe to proceed any farther in the affair, and then let them determine as they think proper, provided they do not do any injuftice by my authority."

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Account of the Siege of Syracufe, from the fecond volume of Hampton's Tranflation of Polybius.

HE conful Appius, having

cufe was in itself a place of very great ftrength, the wall that furrounded it being built upon lofty hills, whofe tops, hanging over the plain, rendered all approach from without, except in certain parts, extremely difficult; fo within the city likewife, and againft all attempts that might be made on the fide of the fea, fo great a quantity of inftruments of defence had been contrived by the perfon juft now mentioned, that the befieged were at no time idle, but were ready, upon every new attack, to meet the motions, and repel the efforts of the enemy. Appius, however, advancing with his blinds and ladders, endeavoured to approach that part of the wall which was joined to the Hexapylum, on the eaftern fide of the city. At the fame time, Marcellus directed his courfe toward Achradina, with a fleet of fix

Take con ty quinqueremes, all filled with fal

mand of the land forces, and ftationed the army round the Scythian portico, fnom whence the wall was continued along the fhore even to the mole of the harbour, refolved to make his approaches on that fide. As the number of his artificers was very great, he prepared in five days only a fufficient quantity of blinds and darts, with every thing befides that was proper for the fiege; and was perfuaded that, by this celerity, he should be able to attack the enemy before they had made the neceffary preparations for their defence. He had not, at this time, made due reflections upon the great fkill of Archimedes; nor confidered, that the mind of a tingle man is on fome occafions far fuperior to the force of many hands. But this truth was foon difcovered to him by the event. For, as Syra

diers, who were armed with bows, flings, and javelins, in order to drive the enemy from the walls. There were alfo eight other quinqueremes, from one fide of which the benches of the rowers had been removed, from the right lide of fome, and from the left of others. Thefe veffels being joined two and two together, on the fides from which the benches had been taken, were rowed by the oars on the oppolite fide, and carried to the walls certain machines called fackbuts, the conftruction and use of which may be thus described.

A ladder is made, which has four feet in breadth, and fuch a length as may make it equal, when raifed, to the height of the walls. On either fide of it is a high breatwork, in the form of a balustrade. This ladder is laid at length upon

the

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